Police work drawing a crowd in Conn. city

By Jessee Leavenworth Hartford Courant

HARTFORD, Conn. — When the economy was flush, police in Connecticut and throughout the nation had to scour the land for qualified recruits. Departments marketed themselves aggressively and offered signing bonuses and additional vacation time. Some even lowered entry standards.

The ongoing recession, however, has changed the scene, nudging many more applicants to police station doors. Manchester police are getting as many as 50 applications a month, compared with just two or three each month a year ago, Deputy Police Chief Marc Montminy said. Administrators in West Hartford, Farmington and other departments also said they were seeing more people willing to try a cop's life - a positive trend, police commanders said.